Confirmed: JCPenney to Start Black Friday at 8pm on Thanksgiving

In a bold move that somehow completely fails to surprise anyone, JCPenney announced today that most locations nationwide will kick off their Black Friday sales at 8pm on Thanksgiving Day.

“Obviously, we were one of the last to open (last year),” said Tony Bartlett, Penney’s executive vice president of stores. He also noted that this year, “We’re all in.”

(An anonymous tipster leaked the 8pm opening time to our Black Friday team earlier this week, though we did not report it at the time since we were unable to establish the tipster’s credibility.)

As we reported earlier, JCPenney is also bringing back the Black Friday Disney snow globes, a beloved tradition which was set aside last year in favor of a button promotion which disappointed many JCPenney Black Friday shoppers. Bartlett told the Associated Press that 2 million limited edition snow globes will be available beginning at 4am.

JCPenney is obviously playing catch up after a disastrous year during which the retailer abolish sales and reported devastating holiday sales. CEO Mike Ullman has been relentless in turning the ship around, bringing back sales and snow globes and keeping up with other top Black Friday retailers in the quest to win over the Black Friday faithful.

Macy’s was the first to confirm its Black Friday store hours for 2013, announcing a controversial 8pm Thanksgiving start time for most stores. We’re keeping track of all opening times on our 2013 Black Friday Store Hours page.